I’ve come to the unsettling conclusion that apart from the panda fetish (and the world domination gig) Warumono-san and I are basically the same guy. Seriously – he has all my hangups, all my obsessions. He sentimentalizes everything, even trash. He loves cats and tries to communicate with them. He obsesses over the small pleasures in life, like coffee and ice cream choices. He’s fixated on the paramount importance of the day off, which must be maximized for existential satisfaction at all costs. He waxes poetic at a hair trigger, and he’s stuck in the wrong job.
Mind you, it would be more upsetting if Warumono-san weren’t such a fundamentally good person (like, you could do a lot worse for a doppelgänger). He’s a mess (curse you, mirror) but who isn’t, really? Certainly not Ranger Shinonome Pink (Kakuma Ai). She’s a super sentai hero who dreams of being a mahou shoujo. And if we’ve seen that combo before, it’s escaped my attention. She and Blue seem to have a somewhat antagonistic relationship that may or may not be based on mutual crushing, and the Green twins are rather protective towards her (just ask poor Blue’s knees and shins).
Pink crosses paths with Warumono-san when she loses her mahou shoujo wand keychain (from the anime “Magical Girl Angels“). This causes her great distress, and she heads out into town to search for it in the darkness. No one has helpfully tied it to a tree, but someone – in a trench coat – has turned it in to the local koban. When Pink chases after the person to thank them, it’s pretty clear she has no idea who he is – but he knows that she’s a mahou shoujo fan, at the very least.
Someone (I couldn’t say who) loves to make a joke about “pan” and “panda” (as in, “what animal is this?” while holding up a loaf of bread). So a panda tie-in at the local bakery makes perfect sense. Warumono-san is seeing pandas everywhere these days (even in Magical Girl Angels), and that includes a panda stamp rally at the local shopping district. Of course he buys enough to get all ten stamps on one trip, but the trouble comes when he has to decide which free prize to claim. Naturally – because he’s me, and I would have done the same – he chooses the coffee mug with the lid.
A series doing an entire segment on a guy shopping for panda goods and then deciding which prize he wants – and that’s literally all it is – just makes me happy. Where else are you going to get that if not here? But as usual Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san saves the meatiest segment for last. It starts with a cleaning day at home (a rare pass on visiting the pandas) that incorporates the aforementioned inability to throw out an empty box (because it had pandas on it, and it was a gift from his shy little underling). Then he takes a break to watch a panda video (what we see is him watching the video, not even the video itself). And, climactically, a trip to the park.
“This creature’s standoffish attitude and charm have made it a favorite with Earthlings”. Indeed, truer words have never been written. Warumono-san loves cute things and he’s an introvert (and maybe tsundere), so against cats he has no chance. He resolves to charm this one as an ambassador to recruit cats to his side in the conquest of Earth, but it’s not easy. The irony with the whole “different language” thing is that scientists have figured out that cats developed that language specifically to communicate with (read: charm) humans – they never meow at each other. Progress is slow but real (“I earned a glance!’) and eventually Warumono-san switches to cat language. But the capper is that the whole conversation is being overheard by the patrolling Pink, and may be cultivating the flower of attraction. Could Konbini Girl have competition?
Nicc
February 6, 2024 at 8:53 amhere sure was a lot of panda in this episode, including the cat in the final segment which resembled its color. Yet, there was a segment without any pandas and one which was sort of about pandas.
That leads off with the episode featuring the Ranger Pink. She’s always wanted to be a magical girl, but unfortunately for her she lives in a world where sentai heroes exist, but magical girls do not. (There has to be some serials out there where both co-exist, right?). We also learn more about the other Rangers while we’re at it too. It seems that all of them live together at a normal house instead of some kind of base (It may be under the home, though). Ranger Blue is kind of a prickly guy with a bad stomach, but he means well in the end. We see the kiddos again for the first time in a while. The OP suggests that they combine into one Ranger. Ranger Black is mentioned, but we don’t see him in this episode.
So, they all take turns patrolling the city. Pink was making the rounds and she realized that she dropped her keychain wand somewhere. Luckily for her, somebody did and dropped it off at a nearby police box. She manages to find the person who found it, who was Warumono-san. Unlike Ranger Red or the kiddos, she doesn’t recognize him as The General from the Evil League. Warumono-san himself didn’t give away if he recognized her or not, but of course he knows the magical girl series which has the panda mascot.
The next segment is panda from beginning to end. This did influence my shopping on Sunday when I was out at the local Asian market to see if I had any last-minute items to pick up for Lunar New Year (February 10th). I normally decide between “Hello Panda” (Meiji) and “Koala’s March” (Lotte) based on price, but I went with pandas this time. Try them both, folks! Right, Warumono-san buys panda stuff to get more panda stuff at the end. Yes, that includes panda bread. For him, sliced panda bread may be the greatest thing since errr… sliced bread. Good choice with the coffee mug too. I’d take the shopping bag and I would have gone for the tumbler if I didn’t already own a Hydro Flask and a Yeti (No Stanley’s, though. It seems that Owala will be the next to blow up so grab them now).
Cleaning day for me is every Sunday, though I have been doing extra because the new year is coming. Indeed, the cleaning does need to be done and just like with everything else, Warumono-san takes it seriously. It looks like he too has discovered the joys of using a cordless vacuum. Throwing out stuff will eventually have to be done, but not necessarily today.
Last is Warumono-san vs domestic cat. Unlike another extraterrestrial, he’s at least not trying to eat them. The communication gets off to a slow start until he realizes they don’t speak the same language. Then, he switches to cat tongue. And, yep, a certain Ranger was listening in. It has not been shown if he is a hit with the ladies back at the Evil League. The next episode jumps into summer and it looks like we’ll be getting an episode centering around Tanabata (Thanks again for the summer festival commission). We’re certainly going through the seasons quickly.
Patchy
February 7, 2024 at 1:26 amIsn’t LiA a world domination gig?
I’m really grateful for such a feel-good series and I may have missed it if not for you Enzo. It takes me back to Tanaka-kun is always listless in sheer confiness even if the comedy is certainly more energic in this one.
Guardian Enzo
February 7, 2024 at 8:41 amHeh, well… I suppose one could look at it that way.